1984 Chev one ton military pickup truck w 6.2 diesel engine

We have this truck which had a badly leaking fuel tank. We replaced the tank and have been able to get fuel up to the filter but we are not certain if it is getting any further. We opened one of the injector lines while the engine was cranking and did not get any air or fuel out of it. I was told that we should open all the lines to bleed the system of air. How important is it to do this? Will the air eventually be pushed out intio the cylinders if you don't? And when bleeding, do you do this one line at a time or all together? We are hesitant to try to open a number of these lines because they are so badly rusted I'm afraid we may break them off. Is there any other way to do this, perhaps by pulling the glow plugs? Will that bleed the air out of the lines? Also could someone please tell me something about how this injector pump works, and how to confirm if it is working properly independant of wether or not it will start the engine? I understand that it is something like a distributor which runs off the cam but instead of distributing spark it distributes fuel? I think I have alot of blow by because the oil gets very dirty and thin very fast. I also think the glow plug controller is operating off the breaker system which is a backup because of voltage readings from last fall told me that it wasnt working the way it should but still worked off the backup. The truck wont fire up. I have pulled the glow plugs and I dont know if a problem with the fuel not geting to the cyclinders or compression? Maybe the glow plugs are not working enough to heat it up. Maybe the batteries are not strong enough to turn the engine fast enough because it doesnt seem to crank very fast at all even with 3 batteries fully charged and the block heater plugged in for hours it still did not crank fast. Does it need to crank fast to start? Thanks in advance. Lenny

Reply to
captainvideo462002
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o.k. lets see here... if you havent replaced the injector pump then chances are you haven't managed to get it out of time. if you feel the need to bleed the injectors then crack open the line farthest from the pump--typically the last one closest to the firewall. i would suggest that you first try dipping a rag in gasoline, wringing it out, and wrap it around the air filterand try to start. the fumes should be sufficient to make the engine hit and the air will disperse itself after running awhile.the engine does not have to spin particularly fast in order to start. most inj. pumps have either a manual pump on them or electric. pull your filter and prime it with diesel or kerosene or transmission fluid or coal oil or dang near anything handy ,making sure you allow time for the filter to soak up whatever you added and keep on until it stays full, spin it back on prior to the gas rag trick. NEVER ATTEMPT TO START A DIESEL ENGINE EQUIPPED WITH GLOWPLUGS WITH STARTING FLUID OR ETHER !!!! this can be very dangerous. let me know if it cranks up.

Reply to
plainoldmechanic

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